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If you've been paying attention for the last 15 years or so, you know that China is like a rapidly but awkwardly developing teenager -- they're growing so fast that their pants don't fit right, and their boobs are a little lopsided. In the midst of all this haphazard and frantic development, there are a few people who refuse to vacate their government-owned homes to make way for new Chinese strip malls. Builders call them stubborn nails because they won't budge.
Homeowner Luo Baogen, for example, refused to allow the government to demolish his home in Wenling in order for a new road to be constructed. Saying that the money offered wasn't enough for him to afford a new crib, he remained the lone holdout long after all his neighbors had left. Undeterred by the presence of one uncooperative human, the Chinese government just built the road around the home, leaving Luo Baogen and his wife a tiny patch in the middle of the asphalt.
Reuters/China Daily
Seriously, how many people have hit that pole?
In 2007, Wu Ping and her husband, Yang Wu, refused to give up their home in Chongqing to make way for a shopping mall. Officials tried to keep them off the property (they'd excavated the area around it so that it was situated in the middle of a massive pit), but they woefully underestimated how utterly badass this particular couple was. Yang was a martial artist, so he managed to scale the cliff leading up to the house using a pair of fucking nunchakus; after Chuck Norrising himself to the top, he unfurled a Chinese flag from his roof, as well as a banner that said "no violation of legitimate private property."
Zhou Shuguang
Horton Hears a Holdout
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